Welcome

Hello and welcome to my moth Blog. I now reside in a small village in East Cambridgeshire called Fordham. My Blog's aim is to promote and encourage others to participate in the wonderful hobby that is Moth-trapping.
Moth records are vital for building a picture of our ecosystem around us, as they really are the bottom of the food chain. They are an excellent early indicator of how healthy a habitat is. I openly encourage people to share their findings via social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.
So why do we do it? well for some people it is to get an insight into the world of Moths, for others it is to build a list of species much like 'Twitching' in the Bird world. The reason I do it....you just never know what you might find when you open up that trap! I hope to show what different species inhabit Cambridgeshire and neighbouring counties.
On this Blog you will find up-to-date records and pictures.
I run a trap regularly in my garden and also enjoy doing field trips to various localities over several different counties.
Please also check out the links in the sidebar to the right for other people's Blogs and informative Websites.
Thanks for looking and happy Mothing!

KEY

NFY = New Species For The Year
NFG = New Species For The Garden
NEW! = New Species For My Records

Any Species highlighted in RED signifies a totally new species for my records.

If you have any questions or enquiries then please feel free to email me, I have now removed commenting as the bots were starting to appear
Contact Email : bensale@rocketmail.com

My Latest Notables and Rarities

Friday, 23 October 2026

One outing this week

I only ran the trap once this week, back on Monday night and it was a very good night with 26 species attending the trap overnight.
Only just posting about it now, as I have had to wait all week to photograph the new for year Sprawler. Cooped up in the fridge, it probably thanked me for it, giving it some sugar solution to keep it alive.
 
Reason... well I leave for work in the dark, and It;s getting dark when I return home.
 
Other than that, there were several species of migrants that turned up. Notably a grand total of 11 Udea ferrugalis, a garden record in one night.
2 Scarce Bordered Straw, several Clancy's, Small Mottled Willow and a Delicate (although the latter three are probably home grown). 
 
And that was it for probably a while. 
 
Moth garden list for 2026 stands at 710 species 
 
19/10/26 - Back Garden - Fordham - East Cambridgeshire - Actinic Trap

Macro Moths 

Sprawler 1 [NFY]
Barred Sallow 1
Beaded Chestnut 1
Black Rustic 7
Blair's Shoulder-knot 1
Double-striped Pug 1
Dusky-lemon Sallow 1
Feathered Thorn 1
Grey-pine Carpet 1
Large Wainscot 1
Least Carpet 2
Lesser Yellow Underwing 1
Lunar Underwing 4
Mallow 1
Merveille du Jour 2
November Moth sp 3 [NFY]
Red-line Quaker 2
Scarce Bordered Straw 2
Turnip Moth 1
Vine's Rustic 3
White-point 5
Willow Beauty 2

Micro Moths

Acleris sparsana 1  
Emmelina monodactyla 1 
Epiphyas postvittana 3 
Udea ferrugalis 11
 
Sprawler


 
Posted by Bennyboymothman at 18:12